Michel Catalano, 57, was hostage to the Kouachi brothers in his printing house in Dammartin-en-Goële after their attack on the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo in 2015. Ten years later, he remembers.
A man still marked by trauma. In January 2015, in his printing house in Dammartin-en-Goële in Seine-et-Marne, Michel Catalano was taken hostage by the Kouachi brothers, who had just committed a deadly attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper. Ten years later, the printer tells Ouest France how he tries to overcome this trauma, in an interview published Friday January 3.
“I have become someone completely different since that day,” he assures the daily, explaining that he has learned to “live with (his) ailments”.
On January 7, 2015, Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, French people of Algerian origin who had pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, entered the premises of the satirical weekly and killed 12 people.
Two days of tracking by law enforcement followed. They were finally shot down by a GIGN team in the printing works of Dammartin-en-Goële, where they had taken refuge.
“I told myself that it was over for me”
Before that, Michel Catalano, 57, manager of the printing house, was held hostage for an hour and a half by the two brothers. “I saw everything in their eyes, the fear, the anger, the dismay,” he remembers ten years later.
When the terrorists suddenly ask him if he is Jewish, the printer becomes frightened. “I told myself that it was over for me, I felt the violence, through the black eyes,” he breathes.
He answers no and adds that he is French with Italian origins. “I hoped that my identity as an immigrant would awaken in them a possibility of identifying with me, with my life journey,” he explains.
While facing the terrorists, Michel Catalano had previously pushed his young 26-year-old employee, Lilian, to hide under a sink to protect him. A gesture that saved his life.
Since then, although the young man no longer works in the printing press, the fifty-year-old has kept in touch with him. “We have a very strong bond that people cannot understand,” he assures.
Persistent anxiety
Since this hostage taking, during which he feared for his life, Michel Catalano has been affected by hypervigilance and says he has difficulty even looking someone in the eyes.
As the anniversary of the hostage taking approaches, the printer, who has not left Dammartin-en-Goële, nevertheless admits to being a little anxious. “I try to convince myself that everything will be okay,” he says.
He also recognizes that the fear has not completely left him, memories of January 7, 2015 resurfacing “as long as the machines (of the printing house) are not restarted” in the morning and he is alone.
However, he claims to be “better” today, saying he was helped by the writing of his book, The Dammartin printer, Ten years later, the hostage of the terrorists tells his storyreleased Thursday January 2. “I needed to understand why I acted like that that day, I had to understand my day,” he explains.
